Choking Strength
by Green Rainboots
Summary: "You'd never hurt me, right?" she repeats. "Like, physically." Mike's eyes widen. "You'd never hit me." Angsty, fluffy, and late reaction fic to Choke.


They all meet up for lunch at their usual table, everyone in glee club, just like they've been doing for the past two years. The girls, minus Rachel, all arrive together, looking a little shaken up, which Mike wonders a little about, especially when Tina hugs him a little tighter and a little longer than she usually does. He doesn't ask her about it, though. He doesn't ask any of them. They'll say something if they want the rest of them to know, and if they don't , and their weird mood continues, **then** Mike will ask. As it is, it could be nothing, and he doesn't want to press.

They've been eating and talking for ten minutes, the girls uncharacteristically mellow, when Tina turns to Mike with large eyes.

"You'd never hurt me, right?" she asks, and Mike just blinks because he has no idea where **that** comes from. Conversations around the table stop and they all turn to look at Tina and Mike.

"What?" he asks with a touch of laughter in his voice, because he doesn't know how to respond to her question. Tina's eyes get even more vulnerable than they'd been before, and she bites her lip nervously.

"You'd never hurt me, right?" she repeats. She sounds upset and desperate and pleading. "Like, **physically**." Mike's eyes widen. "You'd never **hit** me."

And whoa, Mike had not seen that one coming. He can see out of the corner of his eye that Rachel grabs Finn's arm tightly, Santana links pinkies with Brittany, Blaine and Kurt lean towards each other, and Mercedes bumps her shoulder gently into Sam's.

"Wh – no, of course not," Mike says almost immediately. "Where's this coming from? I'd **never** hit you, ever."

"I know," Tina sighs and leans into Mike's chest, and Mike immediately wraps his arms around her. "It's just… how do you know?"

"Know what?" Mike asks, but he's not sure he wants an answer.

"That you won't hit me," Tina's voice is incredibly small and vulnerable, and Mike just wants to hear her voice strong and steadfast again.

"Because I love you," Mike replies. "I'd rather kill myself that hurt you like that."

"But how do you know you won't someday get pissed with me and the world, and just snap and hit me?" Tina presses, leaning back again to look into Mike's eyes. Tina's own eyes are shiny with unshed tears, and Mike just wants it to go away. He wants Tina to be happy. He wants to assure her that he will never hurt her, not if he can help it, especially not like that. Not physically, not ever.

"I promise you, I will **never** hit you. I promise," Mike says earnestly, and Tina nods and sighs again, and then she leans back into his chest. "What's brought this on anyway?"

"Coach Beiste got hit by her husband," Tina replies softly.

"What?" Mike exclaims immediately, and he's not the only one. Every guy who's been on the football team with Coach Beiste, or just pretty much the whole table, come with this exclamation as well. Some come with more.

"The football recruiter?" Artie asks. "He wouldn't do that."

"He did," Mercedes confirms sadly.

"But you **can't** tell anyone!" Tina says, leaning back again to look at Mike, and she presses a finger to his lips.

"Yeah, it stays between us," Santana says. "Glee gossip only. Only we will know. We can't let it get out to the rest of the school."

"Of course not," Rachel says. Her grip on Finn's arm is so tight Mike wonders if it's cutting off Finn's blood circulation. But they all easily agree that the rest of the school is not to know, and they'll go with the coach's story for as long as she wants, and with some coaxing and convincing, the girls manage to get the boys to promise that they won't tell Coach Beiste that they know the truth. None of them are sure they were even allowed to tell their glee friends in the first place, so Tina and Mercedes are adamant about telling Coach Beiste themselves that they let her secret slip.

"Why didn't Coach Beiste just beat him up in return?" Puck asks, which results in him receiving death glares from all the girls, even Sugar. "She's huge, and strong. She could beat up anyone."

"But she's not a violent person," Mercedes explains. Puck looks briefly like he can't really get his head around that, but he says nothing else.

Later, when football practice rolls around, all the guys try to act as normally as possible. But it's hard, because they can still see the outline of a bruise on Coach Beiste's eye, and Mike can see an uncertainty in her gaze when she zones out over strategies while they all finish changing, and the problem is that he, and the rest of the glee guys, they all know where that bruise is from, and Mike can guess what she's thinking about when she zones out. And it's **wrong**. It's wrong on so many levels that Mike can't even really explain it. Domestic violence is **so** wrong, it's right up there with rape and murder. People shouldn't hit their spouse. Men shouldn't hit their wives. Women shouldn't hit their husbands. It doesn't work like that. It's not okay. And Mike has a hard time letting go of that every time he sees Coach Beiste's eye, because he knows that the **douchebag** she calls her husband hit her, and it makes Mike's blood boil, while at the same time it makes him want to be as much of a gentleman with the coach as he is with Tina.

The other guys do it as well. Stare a little longer, glare a little harder. They can't let it go. They can't just ignore it, now that they know the truth. But they try as hard as they can, because the rest of the football team can't know until Coach Beiste is ready to tell them herself, if even then, and they want to respect that the girls don't want Coach Beiste to think they betrayed her or her trust by telling the rest of the glee club. She likes them all, yes, but she may not want them all to know. Especially not the guys.

If Coach Beiste notices their staring, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't even look vaguely uncomfortable. She doesn't in any way show it. None of it. Not even that something beyond hurtful has happened to her. She hides it like a pro, like she took mind-wall-building lessons from Kurt or Quinn or Santana.

And the guys try to act normal, they really do. But they all know that they don't. Finn doesn't ask stupid questions. Puck doesn't whisper to Mike and Finn every other minute. Mike doesn't tap his feet on the floor. They all pay attention to their coach, they all show her the respect that she deserves, because even if she never really minds their habits, she deserves **everyone's** respect, and the glee guys will be the first to show it to her. And even then, she doesn't question it. Or them. She acts completely normal, lie nothing even remotely upsetting has happened. Like her situation hasn't led to Mike's girlfriend asking him if he'd ever hit her.

Finn comes with the really brilliant idea to show Coach Beiste how much they care about her after practice. And it's a really good idea. It's a **brilliant** idea. Mike wonders how Finn came up with it. Puck even asks Finn how he could think of something that good.

"Rachel," Finn says with a shrug and a crooked smile. "When you date a girl like her, you learn your way around nice romantic gestures. This isn't supposed to be romantic, I know, but girls like that sort of thing."

"They do," Mike agrees, because yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Rachel would appreciate the big romantic gestures, so of course Finn goes out of his way to do those kinds of things for her, and of course he learns how to do them right, probably through trial and error. Mike gets that. Dating Tina has honed his romantic skills as well, because by now, half of his life is devoted to making her smile and laugh. The other half is split between his devotion to dance and his love for her. But Mike just wants to see Tina happy, so he does little things for her, like buy her flowers for no reason, or carry her books at the end of the day when she's tired. Finn does that too, for Rachel. So when Mike looks at it like that, it's not all that weird that Finn would come up with this.

Finn and Puck give money to Mike so he can get their surprise for Coach Beiste, and then they split for the day. There's no glee practice, so they all just head home. Puck has pools to clean, Finn has cars to fix, and Mike has gestures to make.

The next day, they all sneak into Coach Beiste's office and Mike places the bouquet of multi-colored roses he bought right on her desk, so she can't avoid seeing them, and places the card on top of them. When they hear her approach, Puck pulls Finn and Mike down to hide behind some weights, instead of just leaving like they should have. Mike wants to ask him what he's doing, but Puck has a hand clasped firmly over his mouth before he can, and makes a jerky movement with his head towards Coach Beiste, and **oh**. Puck wants to see her reaction.

They all turn so they can watch Coach Beiste when she enters. It takes her a moment to notice the flowers, but when she does, she stops dead in her tracks, and she looks frozen. Mike wonders if maybe she thinks the flowers are from Cooter, the dickwad, or if she's just surprised to see them. Whatever the case, she walks over to her desk and picks up the card, to read Mike's neat handwriting.

_Thanks for everything you've  
__done. The last two years have  
__been great._

_Love,  
__Your glee boys  
__Finn, Mike, and Puck_

They had no qualms about making it obvious that the roses were from them, specifically, because there's no way the other guys on the football team would have agreed to do it. The other guys in glee probably would've been more than in on it, but Mike figured that this should be from just the three of them, because they're her glee football players. If everyone in glee signed the card, it'd be more obvious that they know her secret. If it's just from her graduating glee football seniors, then it's just them saying thanks to her for being such a great coach, and that's not very conspicuous. It's just a nice gesture from three rather soft, hearty boys, even if Puck refuses to admit that he's just as soft and hearty as Mike and Finn.

Coach Beiste smile widely at the message and brings the flowers up to her nose so she can smell them. She takes them with her as she leaves again, still smiling widely, clutching their card to her chest. Mike, Finn, and Puck leave the office and the locker room shortly after Coach Beiste, because now that they've seen her reaction, they're good to go. So they leave and they meet up with everyone else in the choir room, where Finn very briefly sums up what they've done for the coach, just before Mr. Schue walks in.

At lunch, Mike keeps an arm wrapped around Tina's shoulders the entire time, even when it makes eating a lot more difficult.

"That can't be practical, just let me go and eat properly," Tina says, sounding amused and exasperated.

"No," Mike says and kisses her temple. "I'm never letting you go."

"Aw, that's sweet," Tina coos, kissing Mike's neck briefly, because it's the part of him that's closest to her right now. A moment later, she continues. "But I hope you let go of me at some point. I love you and all, and I want to spend as much time with you as possible, but it might be a little weird if you follow me to the bathroom just because you don't want to let go."

The table breaks out in laughter. Mike's in on it too, because he and Tina have been dating long enough for this sort of banter to be completely fine. They can laugh at it. He clutches her a little tighter for a moment, and then he loosens his grip again, but he doesn't let go. A little further down the table, Finn keeps stroking Rachel's back every other second. Across from Mike and Tina, Kurt keeps stroking Blaine's thigh under the table, and Blaine's hand seems to keep disappearing down there as well to stroke whatever part of Kurt he can reach. Next to them, Sam sits extra close to Mercedes.

And then Coach Beiste walks up to their table. You'd think all the boys would draw their hands to themselves, but they don't.

"Hey guys," Coach Beiste says with a smile.

"Hey Coach," Puck greets easily.

"I got your flowers. They're beautiful, thank you so much," Coach Beiste says.

"You're very welcome," Mike say.

"I really appreciate it," Coach Beiste says. "It's nice to know you've enjoyed working with me these past two years. I was a little afraid you'd miss your old coach."

"No one misses Ken Tanaka," Puck says, and they all physically shudder at the name. even Tina. Only those who don't know who Ken Tanaka is react with something other than a shiver, and something more akin to curiosity or confusion.

"Still, I really appreciated it," Coach Beiste says. "I'll let you all get back to your lunches know. Thanks again."

"Later, Coach!" Puck calls after her. They don't discuss the issue again. They never bring up the flowers again, and they don't talk about Cooter either. They don't know if Coach Beiste really managed to get out of her house and move in with her sister, or if she forgave Cooter, but what they do know is that their coach knows she's loved by all of them. Maybe that'll give her some strength.


End file.
